As the SKWAWKBOX exclusively broke this morning and now confirmed, the candidates of the left slate in Labour’s National Executive Committee elections have won another clean sweep, taking all nine positions. Veteran NEC member Ann Black, standing as an independent candidate after being dropped from the slate, did not succeed and will stand down after this month’s annual conference.
This win strengthens Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters as they prepare to implement the democracy review recommendations that succeed in being ratified at the conference. Ms Black’s failure to win re-election will further strengthen the left on the NEC, because as Chair of the National Policy Forum she currently has a position on the NEC officers’ group, which has huge influence over NEC matters.
Congratulations to all the successful candidates, who include Peter Willsman in spite of shameful manoeuvres and smears by the right – and the deeply misguided decision of a small group of Momentum executive officers to withdraw the organisation’s support for his candidacy.
The full results are:
| RESULTS (9 to elect) | ||
| DAR, Yasmine | 88,176 | ELECTED |
| WEBBE, Claudia | 83,797 | ELECTED |
| LANSMAN, Jon | 83,072 | ELECTED |
| GARNHAM, Rachel | 81,702 | ELECTED |
| ELMI, Huda | 80,371 | ELECTED |
| WILLIAMS, Darren | 79,361 | ELECTED |
| HENDERSON, Ann | 79,176 | ELECTED |
| MISHRA, Navendu | 75,224 | ELECTED |
| WILLSMAN, Peter | 70,321 | ELECTED |
| IZZARD, Eddie | 67,819 | |
| BAXTER, Johanna | 50,185 | |
| SINGH JOSAN, Gurinder | 48,643 | |
| BLACK, Ann | 45,566 | |
| BECKETT, Jasmin | 43,955 | |
| PETO, Heather | 43,774 | |
| AKEHURST, Luke | 43,156 | |
| CAZIMOGLU, Eda | 40,807 | |
| WIMBURY, Mary | 40,507 | |
| BANES, Lisa | 37,993 | |
| MASTERS, Marianna | 35,061 | |
| FLETCHER, Jonathan | 15,303 | |
| GUY, Stephen | 14,985 | |
| MORRISON, Nicola | 10,671 | |
| CRAIGIE, James | 10,326 | |
| SPEDDING, Gary | 9,854 | |
| STANNERS, Stephen | 8,909 | |
The victory margins over the dire right-wing slate are substantial. Former left-slate candidate Ann Black, campaigning as an independent, finished well off the pace in thirteenth – a surprise to those who considered her a serious threat to one of the left-slate candidates.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Labour’s membership has sent a clear message to those who have been resorting to smears to try to inhibit the party’s democratic processes and to the mainstream media supporting them: “We’re not buying it.”
The news is also likely to be cold water in the face of the Labour right, which has been trying to build up steam to remove Jeremy Corbyn from the leadership, either by a leadership election or by other means. Their motives have been transparent, became blatant over the weekend – and most members see through them.
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Tin hats on, people…
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Yep it’s started already , usual BULLSHIT CRAP report on front page of Graunaid online ,, re Pete Wilsman , well UP YOURS graun , worse than the Torygraph cos at least its more honest and don’t pretend to be leftish wing , getting difficult now to decide wether to wipe my arse with the Graun or s*n.
Now to better business with a positive NEC supporting Corbyn ,,, yeehhhhyy
Exellent News! Now mandatory reselection of MPs needs to be next.
And Eddie Izzard failed to make the cut. What a tragedy. Back to stand-up-routines-in-foreign-languages with you then!
Great news
Next smear in 3 … 2 … 1
Shocking that Izzard polled so many.
You’re not kidding. Wonder if it was partly a spin off from the Willsman smear campaign?
Doesn’t really matter though, JC9 are in! I expect many members will be watching their individual conduct more closely over the next term.
Good to know momentum autocratic leadership could only shy away about 1 out of 8 left voters against Willsman. That gives me good hope for the futur.
Agree, lets hope they adjust their interfering and get back to informative only.
And IZZARD, Eddie lost by about 3k votes his spell did not last long!
Maybe he ran out of magic fairy dust
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Eddie_Izzard
Well done to Skwawk and all the others who ignored Momentum officers’ windy lack of political nerve and stuck to the JC9 slate.
Great result for the full JC9 slate but comes with a health warning – next time the left grassroots want more of a say in choosing the Left NEC slate; the victory should have been greater and presenting the great and the good of the left top down (although all decent socialists) is begining perhaps to irk some JC supporters!
Local Monentum Groups/Grassroots Labour could ask interested local people to submit 500 word statements on what they could bring and why they would like to be on the Left NEC slate then each group locally can (a) vote OMOV for one nominee to go forward or (b) nominate someone from another area or (c) choose not to nominate.
People can vote locally in part of a meeting as a hustings then the result could be shared with all non-attendees who say have 2 weeks to add their votes on-line and paper copies of statements could be made available to those without computers so people can vote at a meeting, on-line, or by post.
Then national Momentum/Grassroots Labour could make all the nominees statements available on their website but then we have the problem of distance; we can’t all be in a room to question all nominees but perhaps next to each statement could be a space to question each person and the questions and answers are made public to all Momentum and Grassroots Labour supporters.
Then all vote OMOV for the top 9 with postal votes for those without computers.
Whilst Labour branches and CLPs/Trade Unions are the place for the Left to contribute ideas on Policy – Momentum/Grassroots Labour group meetings could have a space to send resolutions up to Momentum/Grassroots Labour on organisational issues for Monentum/Grassroots Labour and these organisational ideas could eventually be put to the full membership OMOV.
Then perhaps we would be more grassroots and bottom up instead of top down; perhaps we need to practice the grassroots democratic revolution that we want in society (as we transform it) on ourselves first? Solidarity!
Bazza, obviously the grassroots needs and deserves the opportunity to rise all the way to the top but those already there have value too.
Case in point – if banks hadn’t decided nobody over 35 was thrusting and go-getting sales-savvy enough to be worth keeping there would have been people working there with the experience to prove that not every over-leveraged risk-assessed algorithm-guided brilliant wheeze was in fact as safe as houses, that mis-selling insurance and manipulating LIBOR rates might come back to bite them and that the ’08 crash – and the next one, possibly as soon as 2019/20 – could have been foreseen and avoided.
Personally fully committed to democracy but equally committed to an educated, fully-informed and interventionist electorate.
Not so keen on the celebrity big brother/idiocracy/S*n-reader model.
Do you have any ideas on how the grassroots could become more involved or are you happy to be told who to vote for (like children) by the adults at the top of Momentum?
Are you not a critical thinking human being too?
I have offered some ideas (they are not set in stone) to try to help the Left (and hopefully strengthen JC) but then again I have always had imagination.
But perhaps as Terry Pratchett once wrote: “Those with imagination are often criticised by those with none!”
Let me elaborate on my thinking.
(a) My ideas on local groups possibly nominating one local person for the Left NEC slate gives everyone of us the chance to be on the slate (if we wished) and it would take power away from the ‘old Left’ at the top (and by ‘old Left’ I don’t mean old by age but perhaps those who were used to decisions in the old ways with these being made by small groups behind closed doors and perhaps wheeling and dealing) but perhaps we would need some inbuilt safeguards to ensure we get a good gender balance, BME/LGBT/Disabled representation.
(b) I would suggest if the analysis was done that perhaps on further scrutiny that our NEC slate may be London-centric or more Southern–centric?
My idea gives people from every region an equal chance.
(c) Hustings could take place in local meetings where potential nominees could be questioned and a vote could take place but giving non-attendees 2 weeks to add votes takes account of those lefties who may be housebound, working, or may have childcare responsibilities and local statements could be sent to those without computers and postal votes given to this group.
(d) Apparently when there were 3 extra places on the NEC Momentum invited Lefties to apply and 28 did then a secret committee at the top SELECTED the 3! But of course if local groups send one nominee there are two issues – numbers and choosing by distance. Re numbers well my union sends a booklet of candidates for positions (with statements) so it is done but we still have the problem of distance and how can the many question what 20+?
The ideal would be to have us all in a room with the nominees but this is impratical.
Perhaps next to each nominee’s
statements there could be a space for questions and answers and we all have 2 weeks to grill them before OMOV WE pick the top 9.
We could have hustings for the slate but because of cost of travel etc. this may favour those with better incomes so perhaps we could get each nominee to make a video podcast?
But yes I admit in conclusion I am happy with the local process but perhaps nationally choosing a final 9 needs strengthening and (here’s a revolutionary cconcept) these are only draft ideas and I would welcome comments. Solidarity!
You see David, my ideas try to help the left – we should have had 120k votes.
Quite a number are fed up being told who to vote for.
Plus with today’s NEC actions by 3/4 and other examples shows what can happen when the membership don’t scrutinise candidates!
Well done all. Reclaiming control of the party from the New Labour lot is a lengthy process because many of them are so well dug in, but it needs to be done.
I’ve been following Gary Spedding on Twitter. He also seems a good bloke.
Thank you Skwawkbox. I’m cheered up a little. There is hope.
I don’t have a television so I don’t have to suffer the right wing propaganda that will happen next. I don’t buy the Guardian either.
BBC predictably concentrating on ‘breaking’ the news of Peter Willsman getting elected, John McDonnell advising us to accept ‘all the examples’ and more rehashed antisemitism smears than you can count from the pseudosocialists.
No mention of our team having just given theirs a right kicking.
Or the fact that even a comedian with the political nous of a two-year-old left every one of their team dead in the dirt.
Or the fact that it was a clean sweep for the Left that’s pulled the rug right out from under ̶M̶o̶s̶s̶a̶d̶ the apologists for apartheid Israel.
Does anybody know the results for the National Policy Forum elections?
Left/leftish won 38 of the 42 places apparently!
Thank goodness. Congratulations to all 9 and comisserarions so some of the good independent candidates, some whom are disabled.